The car was predictably late the next morning, having gone to raise Paul and John first. As they were waiting George reluctantly let May place the call to Jack. George hovered nearby. The phone rang for ages before being answered by the landlord. May looked at George and smiled, waving him away. George went into the living room.
Ringo sat reading the newspaper with his feet on the coffee table. George sat down heavily in a chair.
“Hangover?” Ringo asked looking up.
“I’ve had worse,” George replied.
“Who’s she calling?”
“Her fella.”
Ringo raised an eyebrow, but as George obviously didn’t want to talk about it, he went back to the paper.
“Jack?” May said into the receiver, standing alone in the hall.
“Where the fuck have you been?” He sounded groggy, slightly slurring his words.
“How are you?” she asked, wondering how to phrase the answer to his question.
“Fine.” Jack said shortly. “I phoned bloody Manchester looking for you.”
A warm feeling swelled inside May; at least he had cared enough to do that. “Oh Jack, did you tell my parents?”
“Had to didn’t I? They weren’t best pleased at hearing their slapper of a daughter had run off.” Jack continued.
“You threw me out!” she protested.
““Yeah, and where did you get to?” then added under his breath, “Another man, was it? You whore.”
“No, I was at a friend’s…”
“What friend?”
“I went to the closed up house that’s just outside of town,” she told him. The conversation wasn’t going as well as she’d hoped. Jack was being deliberately obtuse. Well, sod it then, May thought, defiantly. I’ll tell him the truth. “Its owned by a friend of George’s. He was there, so I spent the night there, with him.”
“George? George who? That fella who runs the newsagents?” Jack asked referring to the only George they knew in Aberystwyth.
“No,” May replied, “George Harrison. I’m still staying with him, in London. I’m working on a film set.”
There was a long silence on the line, leaving May wondering if Jack had gone. “Hello?” she said.
Jack burst out laughing, “George Harrison? The Beatle? You’re bloody delusional? You stupid cow, you’ve really gone off the deep end this time!” He spat the words at her.
“It’s true…” May said weakly.
Fidgeting restlessly in the living room, George got up and went to the hall door.
“Jack, please…” May said into the phone, not noticing George.
“You need your head looking at! Are you coming back here or what?!”
George overheard the question. He closed his eyes.
“No…” May said quietly. George drew a sigh of relief.
“You stupid bitch!” Jack started shouting at her, “This has gone on long enough! You get yourself back here…”
George lightly took the receiver from May and replaced it.
“He didn’t believe me…” May said. George put his arms around her.